Academic Research
Reparative Consumption: The Role of Racial Identity and White Guilt in Consumer Preferences
In light of recent social and political movements advocating for racial equity and calls for more research on interracial marketplace interactions, this research explores the role racial identity plays in the consumption domain. Specifically, we investigate the marketplace consequences of U.S.-based White consumers’ feelings about their own racial identity by measuring and manipulating white guilt, defined as the sense of guilt and remorse that emerges among White consumers who hold their racial ingroup responsible for historical and ongoing racial injustices and perceive that Whites, as a racial group, benefit from unearned privileges. Consistent with the reparation-oriented action profile of guilt, six studies (all pre-registered, two with incentive-compatible designs) show that white guilt motivates reparative behaviors toward Black-owned businesses in various service contexts: Consumers with high white guilt express greater willingness to patronize and promote a business when it is Black-owned (vs. White-owned, family-owned, or when there is no information on ownership) and feel more moral for doing so, whereas this effect is non-existent, or sometimes reversed, for those low in white guilt. Our findings reveal the complex dynamics of race, identity, and intergroup relations in the marketplace, and demonstrate a contemporary exception to ingroup favoritism among some White consumers.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucaf019
Authors: Rishad Habib, Ekin Ok, Karl Aquino, Siddhanth Mookerjee, Yann Cornil
ABSTRACT
In light of recent social and political movements advocating for racial equity and calls for more research on interracial marketplace interactions, this research explores the role racial identity plays in the consumption domain. Specifically, we investigate the marketplace consequences of U.S.-based White consumers’ feelings about their own racial identity by measuring and manipulating white guilt, defined as the sense of guilt and remorse that emerges among White consumers who hold their racial ingroup responsible for historical and ongoing racial injustices and perceive that Whites, as a racial group, benefit from unearned privileges. Consistent with the reparation-oriented action profile of guilt, six studies (all pre-registered, two with incentive-compatible designs) show that white guilt motivates reparative behaviors toward Black-owned businesses in various service contexts: Consumers with high white guilt express greater willingness to patronize and promote a business when it is Black-owned (vs. White-owned, family-owned, or when there is no information on ownership) and feel more moral for doing so, whereas this effect is non-existent, or sometimes reversed, for those low in white guilt. Our findings reveal the complex dynamics of race, identity, and intergroup relations in the marketplace, and demonstrate a contemporary exception to ingroup favoritism among some White consumers.
The Power of Personal Losses: How the Loss-gain Frame Influences Public Green Participation Intentions
Despite the growing public awareness of environmental issues, a common gap between attitude and behavior persists. Effectively promoting public participation in pro-environmental actions remains a critical challenge in enhancing environmental governance. This research focuses on the gain-loss framing of green appeals and develops a research model to investigate the influence of different framing types (personal loss vs. collective gain) on the public's intention to engage in green behavior. Through four experiments, including both field and laboratory studies, the research demonstrates that framing green appeals in terms of personal losses is more likely to foster a higher intention to engage in green behavior than framing them in terms of collective gains. The underlying mechanism of this effect is that emphasizing personal losses strengthens the public's sense of psychological empowerment, thereby increasing their sense of green self-accountability, which, in turn, boosts their intentions to participate in green behaviors. However, this effect is moderated by individuals' green self-efficacy. The higher an individual's green self-efficacy, the weaker the impact of the gain-loss framing on their psychological empowerment.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104296
Authors: Chunfeng Chen, Depeng Zhang, Lu Zhu, Junbao Wu
ABSTRACT
Despite the growing public awareness of environmental issues, a common gap between attitude and behavior persists. Effectively promoting public participation in pro-environmental actions remains a critical challenge in enhancing environmental governance. This research focuses on the gain-loss framing of green appeals and develops a research model to investigate the influence of different framing types (personal loss vs. collective gain) on the public's intention to engage in green behavior. Through four experiments, including both field and laboratory studies, the research demonstrates that framing green appeals in terms of personal losses is more likely to foster a higher intention to engage in green behavior than framing them in terms of collective gains. The underlying mechanism of this effect is that emphasizing personal losses strengthens the public's sense of psychological empowerment, thereby increasing their sense of green self-accountability, which, in turn, boosts their intentions to participate in green behaviors. However, this effect is moderated by individuals' green self-efficacy. The higher an individual's green self-efficacy, the weaker the impact of the gain-loss framing on their psychological empowerment.
What It Takes to Fix a “Mean” Workplace
Workplace incivility costs U.S. businesses an estimated $2 billion each day in lost productivity. Uncivil behavior can spread to bystanders like a virus, creating a workplace contagion that decimates productivity and well-being. But new preliminary research suggests civility is just as contagious. Anyone can break the cycle of incivility through three steps: 1) Noticing your automatic response; 2) Naming your automatic response; and 3) Communicating in a way that doesn’t trigger the other person.close
Paper Link: https://hbr.org/2025/03/what-it-takes-to-fix-a-mean-workplace
Authors: Laura Cassiday, David Rock
ABSTRACT
Workplace incivility costs U.S. businesses an estimated $2 billion each day in lost productivity. Uncivil behavior can spread to bystanders like a virus, creating a workplace contagion that decimates productivity and well-being. But new preliminary research suggests civility is just as contagious. Anyone can break the cycle of incivility through three steps: 1) Noticing your automatic response; 2) Naming your automatic response; and 3) Communicating in a way that doesn’t trigger the other person.
Positive Luxury: A Consumer-Centric Approach to Bridging Luxury and Sustainability
This study explores the concept of luxury through the lens of sustainability, questioning conventional interpretations and promoting a broader comprehension of luxury’s compatibility with sustainability. It also explores the potential positive effects of luxury consumption and production at various scales—individual (micro), industry (meso), and environment (macro). This research, adopting a positive theory approach and aligning with the transformative luxury research (TLR) stream, proposes a novel framework termed “positive luxury.” This framework, informed by consumer insights, introduces additional pillars of sustainable practices in the luxury sector that yield positive impacts. These pillars encompass ecological, social, and economic aspects, as well as ethical governance, supply chain integrity, philanthropy, well-being, and diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). The findings underscore the significance of a consumer-centered perspective and reveal the nuanced positive impacts that consumers perceive from each of these pillars. Furthermore, the study advances existing works by classifying sustainable pillars into either “core” or “incipient” qualities, while responding to the TLR stream’s call for a focus on well-being outcomes. The findings have implications for policymakers and luxury businesses alike, offering potential directions for future research.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931251321822
Authors: Wided Batat, Danae Manika, Alex Yao Yao, and more
ABSTRACT
This study explores the concept of luxury through the lens of sustainability, questioning conventional interpretations and promoting a broader comprehension of luxury’s compatibility with sustainability. It also explores the potential positive effects of luxury consumption and production at various scales—individual (micro), industry (meso), and environment (macro). This research, adopting a positive theory approach and aligning with the transformative luxury research (TLR) stream, proposes a novel framework termed “positive luxury.” This framework, informed by consumer insights, introduces additional pillars of sustainable practices in the luxury sector that yield positive impacts. These pillars encompass ecological, social, and economic aspects, as well as ethical governance, supply chain integrity, philanthropy, well-being, and diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). The findings underscore the significance of a consumer-centered perspective and reveal the nuanced positive impacts that consumers perceive from each of these pillars. Furthermore, the study advances existing works by classifying sustainable pillars into either “core” or “incipient” qualities, while responding to the TLR stream’s call for a focus on well-being outcomes. The findings have implications for policymakers and luxury businesses alike, offering potential directions for future research.
Market Sensemaking for Consumers’ Collective Political Agency
Employing the theoretical lens of Weick’s work on sensemaking, this article explains how consumers collectively decipher and pursue their political interests. Based on historiographic data among Gaúchos in Southern Brazil, the findings detail how improvised enactments of consumer culture trigger interpretive capacities that decipher the effects of the enactments on the group and how articulation of hot conflict and cool inference interpretations politicizes such enactments. Ultimately, such socially engaged articulation informs committed interpretation, compromise, and consensus, which in turn motivate and justify subsequent enactments advancing group interests. The discussion elaborates the importance of sensemaking capacities and articulation, and the significance of committed interpretation in enabling and blocking collective compromise and consensus. This research contributes to knowledge of: (1) meso-level processes of collectively reasoned action among members of a consumer culture, (2) group structure that enhances consumers’ collective market sensemaking, and (3) particular market sensemaking challenges for consumption politics in a postcolonial context. The article closes with suggestions for further research in other forms of consumer culture in postcolonial conditions.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae072
Authors: Marlon Dalmoro, Lisa Peñaloza
ABSTRACT
Employing the theoretical lens of Weick’s work on sensemaking, this article explains how consumers collectively decipher and pursue their political interests. Based on historiographic data among Gaúchos in Southern Brazil, the findings detail how improvised enactments of consumer culture trigger interpretive capacities that decipher the effects of the enactments on the group and how articulation of hot conflict and cool inference interpretations politicizes such enactments. Ultimately, such socially engaged articulation informs committed interpretation, compromise, and consensus, which in turn motivate and justify subsequent enactments advancing group interests. The discussion elaborates the importance of sensemaking capacities and articulation, and the significance of committed interpretation in enabling and blocking collective compromise and consensus. This research contributes to knowledge of: (1) meso-level processes of collectively reasoned action among members of a consumer culture, (2) group structure that enhances consumers’ collective market sensemaking, and (3) particular market sensemaking challenges for consumption politics in a postcolonial context. The article closes with suggestions for further research in other forms of consumer culture in postcolonial conditions.
Brand Corporateness: Measurement and Symbolic Meaning of an Unfavorable Brand Association
This research establishes brand corporateness as a novel brand association that most consumers find unfavorable. Exploratory focus group findings first illuminate consumer meaning structures and attitudes around brand corporateness. An inductive grounded theory approach suggests three core (hierarchical, mechanistic, opaque) and three ancillary (ubiquitous, traditional, strategic) dimensions of the construct, informing a subsequent literature review that theoretically confirms this structure. Our theorizing also suggests that greater corporateness diminishes consumers’ self-brand connection because the symbolic meanings of its core dimensions clash with several fundamental human values, a negative effect that is heightened among more politically liberal consumers. The main empirical work then develops and validates a measure of brand corporateness across 11 studies using best practices in scale development. After a rigorous item generation and refinement process, our studies provide converging evidence for the scale’s structural, nomological, discriminant, predictive, and ecological validity.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae069
Authors: Brandon J Reich, Sara Hanson
ABSTRACT
This research establishes brand corporateness as a novel brand association that most consumers find unfavorable. Exploratory focus group findings first illuminate consumer meaning structures and attitudes around brand corporateness. An inductive grounded theory approach suggests three core (hierarchical, mechanistic, opaque) and three ancillary (ubiquitous, traditional, strategic) dimensions of the construct, informing a subsequent literature review that theoretically confirms this structure. Our theorizing also suggests that greater corporateness diminishes consumers’ self-brand connection because the symbolic meanings of its core dimensions clash with several fundamental human values, a negative effect that is heightened among more politically liberal consumers. The main empirical work then develops and validates a measure of brand corporateness across 11 studies using best practices in scale development. After a rigorous item generation and refinement process, our studies provide converging evidence for the scale’s structural, nomological, discriminant, predictive, and ecological validity.
Consumer Moral Decision Making: The Impact of Alignable Versus Nonalignable Differences
Consumer choice decisions often involve a tradeoff between an alignable difference (a difference along a shared attribute) and a nonalignable difference (a difference between unique attributes of each alternative). For example, Café A provides friendly service, while Café B offers unwelcoming service (an alignable difference). However, Café A occasionally makes billing errors, and Café B has comfortable seating (a nonalignable difference). Prior research shows that alignable differences tend to have a greater impact on choice than nonalignable differences (known as the “alignability effect”). Yet, little research has examined tradeoffs involving moral attributes. Contrary to the prevailing evidence, eight studies (N = 2,861) demonstrate that in moral attribute tradeoffs, nonalignable (vs. alignable) differences have a greater impact on choice (termed the “nonalignability effect”). Consequently, consumers prefer an alternative that is superior on a nonalignable moral difference but inferior on an alignable moral difference. Moreover, in moral–quality tradeoffs, where one alternative is more ethical but is of lower quality, consumers show a stronger preference for the ethical alternative when its moral superiority is represented by a nonalignable (vs. alignable) difference. The nonalignability effect is driven by consumers’ unique decision process in making moral attribute tradeoffs, characterized by categorical valence coding and attribute-by-attribute win–loss counting.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae065
Authors: Sang Kyu Park, Young Joo Cho, Jungkeun Kim, Jin Yong Lee, Jongwon Park
ABSTRACT
Consumer choice decisions often involve a tradeoff between an alignable difference (a difference along a shared attribute) and a nonalignable difference (a difference between unique attributes of each alternative). For example, Café A provides friendly service, while Café B offers unwelcoming service (an alignable difference). However, Café A occasionally makes billing errors, and Café B has comfortable seating (a nonalignable difference). Prior research shows that alignable differences tend to have a greater impact on choice than nonalignable differences (known as the “alignability effect”). Yet, little research has examined tradeoffs involving moral attributes. Contrary to the prevailing evidence, eight studies (N = 2,861) demonstrate that in moral attribute tradeoffs, nonalignable (vs. alignable) differences have a greater impact on choice (termed the “nonalignability effect”). Consequently, consumers prefer an alternative that is superior on a nonalignable moral difference but inferior on an alignable moral difference. Moreover, in moral–quality tradeoffs, where one alternative is more ethical but is of lower quality, consumers show a stronger preference for the ethical alternative when its moral superiority is represented by a nonalignable (vs. alignable) difference. The nonalignability effect is driven by consumers’ unique decision process in making moral attribute tradeoffs, characterized by categorical valence coding and attribute-by-attribute win–loss counting.
The Contrast Pressures on Consumer-Level Food Waste in a Pandemic: The Impact of Infection Salience Versus Lockdown Salience
Consumer food waste, with its extensive social, economic, and environmental implications, gained heightened attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted food supply chains and exacerbated food insecurity. Amidst conflicting reports on the pandemic’s influences on consumer-level food waste, this research differentiates between the infection and lockdown facets of a pandemic. Specifically, we demonstrate that infection salience amplifies safety–health concerns, leading to increased consumer food waste, while lockdown salience raises concerns over resource scarcity, resulting in reduced consumer food waste. Considering that most pandemics or infectious diseases primarily increase infection salience without inducing lockdowns, we propose a safety–health intervention to mitigate the rise in consumer food waste driven by infection salience and the associated safety–health concerns. Through a large-scale field study, a lab experiment measuring real food waste, a country-level secondary dataset, and three supplementary experiments, we provide converging supports for our theory. These studies also showcase various implementations of the safety–health intervention, such as table tents, napkins, and to-go boxes. This research reconciles divergent perspectives on the pandemic’s impact on consumer-level food waste, enriches the understanding of pandemics and associated food waste dynamics, and offers actionable strategies for businesses and policymakers to address consumer food waste during pandemics.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae063
Authors: Huachao Gao
ABSTRACT
Consumer food waste, with its extensive social, economic, and environmental implications, gained heightened attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted food supply chains and exacerbated food insecurity. Amidst conflicting reports on the pandemic’s influences on consumer-level food waste, this research differentiates between the infection and lockdown facets of a pandemic. Specifically, we demonstrate that infection salience amplifies safety–health concerns, leading to increased consumer food waste, while lockdown salience raises concerns over resource scarcity, resulting in reduced consumer food waste. Considering that most pandemics or infectious diseases primarily increase infection salience without inducing lockdowns, we propose a safety–health intervention to mitigate the rise in consumer food waste driven by infection salience and the associated safety–health concerns. Through a large-scale field study, a lab experiment measuring real food waste, a country-level secondary dataset, and three supplementary experiments, we provide converging supports for our theory. These studies also showcase various implementations of the safety–health intervention, such as table tents, napkins, and to-go boxes. This research reconciles divergent perspectives on the pandemic’s impact on consumer-level food waste, enriches the understanding of pandemics and associated food waste dynamics, and offers actionable strategies for businesses and policymakers to address consumer food waste during pandemics.
Behavioral Rebound Effect and Moral Compensation: an Online Experiment
This paper investigates the behavioral rebound effect as defined by Dorner (2019) in an analytical framework where individuals have environmental preferences. We also study the impact of moral compensation (moral licensing and moral cleansing) on pro-environmental behavior. We propose a theoretical model that integrates behavioral and emotional factors and we conduct an online experiment with 1622 subjects to test our hypotheses. Our findings indicate that a decrease in the marginal damage of a polluting good leads to a decrease in individual’s pro-environmental behavior. This result confirms the existence of the behavioral rebound effect. Additionally, our results show that the moral cleansing effect positively influences pro-environmental behavior, especially among individuals with the strongest environmental attitudes.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2025.102347
Authors: Simon Mathex, Lisette Hafkamp Ibanez, Raphaële Préget
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the behavioral rebound effect as defined by Dorner (2019) in an analytical framework where individuals have environmental preferences. We also study the impact of moral compensation (moral licensing and moral cleansing) on pro-environmental behavior. We propose a theoretical model that integrates behavioral and emotional factors and we conduct an online experiment with 1622 subjects to test our hypotheses. Our findings indicate that a decrease in the marginal damage of a polluting good leads to a decrease in individual’s pro-environmental behavior. This result confirms the existence of the behavioral rebound effect. Additionally, our results show that the moral cleansing effect positively influences pro-environmental behavior, especially among individuals with the strongest environmental attitudes.
Humanism in Marketing: Responsible Leadership and the Human-to-human Approach
Humanism in Marketing promotes a centered approach to marketing practice. It defines humanism as “the ethical core of marketing, emphasizing the dignity of individuals, ethical engagement, and active participation with all stakeholders.” The book aims to show how businesses can align their operations with ethical and socially responsible leadership by recognizing this ethical core and the chapters, contributed from different disciplines, address global crises such as climate change, geopolitical instability and digital disruption.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931251323585
Authors: Widiyanti Ayu Nilasari, Muhamad Iqbal Haqiqi Maramis, Zailan Basri Tamamala
ABSTRACT
Humanism in Marketing promotes a centered approach to marketing practice. It defines humanism as “the ethical core of marketing, emphasizing the dignity of individuals, ethical engagement, and active participation with all stakeholders.” The book aims to show how businesses can align their operations with ethical and socially responsible leadership by recognizing this ethical core and the chapters, contributed from different disciplines, address global crises such as climate change, geopolitical instability and digital disruption.
Editorial: Paving the Way for Responsible Retailing
Why retailers care about responsible retailing
Clearly, engaging in responsible retailing can serve as a competitive advantage in highly competitive settings like the retail industry (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2011) and lead to increased firm performance (Atz et al. 2021), as many stakeholders value it. First, 93% of customers worldwide expect companies to take social and environmental actions (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021), and consumer demand for sustainable and healthy products is increasing. Second, employees seek employers that share their…
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.02.006
Authors: Niels Holtrop, Lara Lobschat, Anne ter Braak
ABSTRACT
Why retailers care about responsible retailing
Clearly, engaging in responsible retailing can serve as a competitive advantage in highly competitive settings like the retail industry (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2011) and lead to increased firm performance (Atz et al. 2021), as many stakeholders value it. First, 93% of customers worldwide expect companies to take social and environmental actions (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021), and consumer demand for sustainable and healthy products is increasing. Second, employees seek employers that share their…
Challenges on the path to responsibility
Given that responsible retailing is required to retain organizational legitimacy, what explains the differences in the extent of responsible retailing that we observe in the industry? The first challenge that retailers face is how to balance doing good with the economic consequences of their decisions. With the risk of backlash when changes are too severe, responsible retailing initiatives are often incremental rather than radical. For example, to stimulate healthier consumption, manufacturers…
Responsibility on a global and local scale
While we observed that many responsible retail actions remain at the tactical level without strategic consideration, it is not to say that retailers are not concerned about the major global challenges of this age. Retailer initiatives have focused on reducing climate impact, stimulating environmental protection, enhancing nutritional quality, and addressing economic uncertainty, amongst others. For example, Walmart and Lidl have set and reached ambitious CO2 reduction goals throughout their…
Do Brand Allyship Efforts in the Black American Community Require Financial Investment?
This study aims to investigate factors affecting consumers’ perceptions of brand allyship activities given the presence or absence of corresponding community investment. Using the black American community as a contextual group receiving support, this research probes factors that make brand allyship seem sincere and how brand allyship affects consumer self-esteem. It further examines how perceived sincerity and derived self-esteem affect consumers’ perceived self-brand connections and reported brand attitudes.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-02-2024-4965
Authors: Roland L. Leak, Kimberly R. McNeil, George W. Stone, Ronda G. Henderson
ABSTRACT
Purpose
This study aims to investigate factors affecting consumers’ perceptions of brand allyship activities given the presence or absence of corresponding community investment. Using the black American community as a contextual group receiving support, this research probes factors that make brand allyship seem sincere and how brand allyship affects consumer self-esteem. It further examines how perceived sincerity and derived self-esteem affect consumers’ perceived self-brand connections and reported brand attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
Collecting data with experimental surveys, hypothesized effects are tested in a main study (n = 1,184) using a general linear model and moderated mediation analyses.
Findings
Perceived sincerity is shown to interact with consumers’ self-esteem to induce an approach/avoidance reaction to a brand, where high self-esteem consumers are more apt to accept sincere brand allyship activities and reject insincere campaigns.
Originality/value
As sincerity is critical to brand allyship success, this research outlines instances where managers need to contextually manipulate sincerity perceptions by outlaying community investment to coincide with the campaign. Specific contexts revolve around racial diversity in the management group and the race of consumers/perceivers.
When Being Green is Not Enough – an Experimental Study of the Effects of Sustainable Value Propositions on B2b Green Buying Decisions
Despite the increased importance of environmental sustainability in B2B buying, insights on the marketing mechanisms that influence B2B green buying behavior and green value perceptions at the individual level are still limited. Drawing upon signaling theory and the literature on sustainable value propositions in B2B markets, we first examine the effect of vendors' sustainable value propositions on individual B2B buyers' purchasing decisions for green technology offerings. In a second step, we further investigate the role of buyers' market turbulence as a contingent factor in this relationship. Our findings from a scenario-based experiment provide empirical evidence that a risk-based strategy is more effective under conditions of high buyer market turbulence, while a certification-based strategy, counter to the literature, is more impactful in less turbulent markets. We thus advance the knowledge on the factors that drive B2B green buying at the individual level and contribute to the literature on sustainability value and sustainable value propositions in business markets. Our results further provide guidance for vendors designing value propositions for green offerings and for buyers seeking to purchase environmentally-friendly technologies.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.02.017
Authors: Marcel Aksoy, Benedikt Schnellbächer
ABSTRACT
Despite the increased importance of environmental sustainability in B2B buying, insights on the marketing mechanisms that influence B2B green buying behavior and green value perceptions at the individual level are still limited. Drawing upon signaling theory and the literature on sustainable value propositions in B2B markets, we first examine the effect of vendors' sustainable value propositions on individual B2B buyers' purchasing decisions for green technology offerings. In a second step, we further investigate the role of buyers' market turbulence as a contingent factor in this relationship. Our findings from a scenario-based experiment provide empirical evidence that a risk-based strategy is more effective under conditions of high buyer market turbulence, while a certification-based strategy, counter to the literature, is more impactful in less turbulent markets. We thus advance the knowledge on the factors that drive B2B green buying at the individual level and contribute to the literature on sustainability value and sustainable value propositions in business markets. Our results further provide guidance for vendors designing value propositions for green offerings and for buyers seeking to purchase environmentally-friendly technologies.
Inclusive Marketing: A Review and Research Agenda
In today’s globalized, multicultural markets, the diversity of consumer needs highlights the increasing social role of consumption and the demand for marketplace justice. This shift has propelled the importance of inclusive marketing in academic research. Despite its growing relevance, critical aspects of inclusive marketing’s development, including its conceptual framework and consumer responses, remain underexplored. This study systematically reviews 71 articles to elucidate these aspects through four critical research questions. This review utilizes the TCCM framework to scrutinize the predominant theories, contexts, methods, and typologies shaping the domain. It also categorizes scholarly works into a representation of diverse consumers, responses of the marketplace actors, consumer identities in the inclusive marketplace, continuum of inclusive marketing, inclusive marketing under a critical lens, and conceptual boundaries of inclusive marketing. Based on this analysis, the study proposes a refined definition of inclusive marketing. It concludes by suggesting future research directions to advance this emergent field, focusing on unexplored areas with potential for significant academic contribution.
Paper Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296325000979?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Authors: Nikhita Tuli, Vibhava Srivastava, Harish Kumar
ABSTRACT
In today’s globalized, multicultural markets, the diversity of consumer needs highlights the increasing social role of consumption and the demand for marketplace justice. This shift has propelled the importance of inclusive marketing in academic research. Despite its growing relevance, critical aspects of inclusive marketing’s development, including its conceptual framework and consumer responses, remain underexplored. This study systematically reviews 71 articles to elucidate these aspects through four critical research questions. This review utilizes the TCCM framework to scrutinize the predominant theories, contexts, methods, and typologies shaping the domain. It also categorizes scholarly works into a representation of diverse consumers, responses of the marketplace actors, consumer identities in the inclusive marketplace, continuum of inclusive marketing, inclusive marketing under a critical lens, and conceptual boundaries of inclusive marketing. Based on this analysis, the study proposes a refined definition of inclusive marketing. It concludes by suggesting future research directions to advance this emergent field, focusing on unexplored areas with potential for significant academic contribution.
How to Assess the New Legal Risks of Your DEI Policies
What has—and hasn’t—changed in the legal landscape.
Paper Link: https://hbr.org/2025/02/how-to-assess-the-new-legal-risks-of-your-dei-policies
Authors: Joan C. Williams, Laura J. Maechtlen, Jamie Dolkas
ABSTRACT
What has—and hasn’t—changed in the legal landscape.
Research on the Impact of Matched Effects Between Green Advertising Appeals and Product Type on Consumer Purchase Intention
With increasing global attention to environmental issues, green marketing has become a vital component of corporate strategy. Consequently, designing effective green advertising strategies to attract consumers has garnered significant interest. This paper employs experimental methods to investigate the impact mechanism of green advertising appeals—specifically, egoistic appeals versus altruistic appeals—on consumers' green purchase intentions. Additionally, it utilizes the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Construal Level Theory to elucidate the internal mechanisms at play. The findings indicate that: (a) green advertising appeals exert a substantial influence on consumers' green purchase intentions and perceived information credibility, with egoistic appeals exhibiting a more pronounced effect than altruistic appeals; (b) there exists a significant mediating effect through consumers' perceived information credibility; (c) product type serves as a moderator between green advertising appeals and consumers' purchase intentions. Specifically, when purchasing utilitarian products, egoistic appeals enhance consumers' green purchase intentions and perceived information credibility compared to altruistic appeals. Conversely, when purchasing hedonic products, altruistic appeals prove more effective than egoistic appeals. Ultimately, the study's conclusion offers insights and recommendations for enhancing the efficacy of enterprise green advertising strategies.
Paper Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S096969892500044X?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Authors: Fei Zhang, Yi Zhang, Shiyu Liao, Xingjian Zhou, Xiaogang Ma
ABSTRACT
With increasing global attention to environmental issues, green marketing has become a vital component of corporate strategy. Consequently, designing effective green advertising strategies to attract consumers has garnered significant interest. This paper employs experimental methods to investigate the impact mechanism of green advertising appeals—specifically, egoistic appeals versus altruistic appeals—on consumers' green purchase intentions. Additionally, it utilizes the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Construal Level Theory to elucidate the internal mechanisms at play. The findings indicate that: (a) green advertising appeals exert a substantial influence on consumers' green purchase intentions and perceived information credibility, with egoistic appeals exhibiting a more pronounced effect than altruistic appeals; (b) there exists a significant mediating effect through consumers' perceived information credibility; (c) product type serves as a moderator between green advertising appeals and consumers' purchase intentions. Specifically, when purchasing utilitarian products, egoistic appeals enhance consumers' green purchase intentions and perceived information credibility compared to altruistic appeals. Conversely, when purchasing hedonic products, altruistic appeals prove more effective than egoistic appeals. Ultimately, the study's conclusion offers insights and recommendations for enhancing the efficacy of enterprise green advertising strategies.
Racial Inequity in Donation-Based Crowdfunding Platforms: The Role of Facial Emotional Expressiveness
Journal of Marketing, Ahead of Print. Donation-based crowdfunding platforms often claim to pursue equitable outcomes for all beneficiaries, yet many face criticism for failing to do so across different demographic profiles. In response, platform managers are eager to understand how these inequities emerge and explore solutions to address them. In this research, the authors show that the degree of facial emotional expressiveness of beneficiaries in uploaded images can differentially impact donation amounts for White versus Black beneficiaries. Drawing on social vision theory, the authors propose that facial emotional expressiveness in images, combined with the beneficiary’s race, activates racial stereotypes of emotion expression that result in differential donation amounts to Black and White individuals. Analyzing a sample of 4,153 campaigns from GoFundMe between June 2021 and September 2022, along with a follow-up experiment, the authors find that higher facial emotional expressiveness is associated with significantly lower donation amounts for Black compared with White beneficiaries. Further exploring our moderating constructs reveals that the use of call-to-action cues, affective messaging, and race-gender homophily cues can attenuate the activation of stereotypes and therefore reduce differences in donation amounts between racial groups. Based on these findings, the authors offer targeted recommendations for platform managers to reduce racial inequities in crowdfunding outcomes.
Paper Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222429241300320?ai=2b4&mi=ehikzz&af=R
Authors: Elham Yazdani, Anindita Chakravarty, Jeffrey Inman
ABSTRACT
Journal of Marketing, Ahead of Print. Donation-based crowdfunding platforms often claim to pursue equitable outcomes for all beneficiaries, yet many face criticism for failing to do so across different demographic profiles. In response, platform managers are eager to understand how these inequities emerge and explore solutions to address them. In this research, the authors show that the degree of facial emotional expressiveness of beneficiaries in uploaded images can differentially impact donation amounts for White versus Black beneficiaries. Drawing on social vision theory, the authors propose that facial emotional expressiveness in images, combined with the beneficiary’s race, activates racial stereotypes of emotion expression that result in differential donation amounts to Black and White individuals. Analyzing a sample of 4,153 campaigns from GoFundMe between June 2021 and September 2022, along with a follow-up experiment, the authors find that higher facial emotional expressiveness is associated with significantly lower donation amounts for Black compared with White beneficiaries. Further exploring our moderating constructs reveals that the use of call-to-action cues, affective messaging, and race-gender homophily cues can attenuate the activation of stereotypes and therefore reduce differences in donation amounts between racial groups. Based on these findings, the authors offer targeted recommendations for platform managers to reduce racial inequities in crowdfunding outcomes.
Is It Inclusive Enough? An Investigation of Consumer Responses to Inclusive Product Lines
Brands are increasingly committing to improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within their marketing practices. One way that brands can show their commitment to DEI is by offering inclusive product lines. This paper aims to examine the strategic implications of offering inclusive product lines by investigating consumer perceptions of product lines with more (versus fewer) options as well as product lines that cater primarily to minority (versus majority) consumers. This research uses three online experiments and one secondary data set to test the hypotheses across two consumption contexts (makeup and clothing). Consumers perceive product lines with more options and a distribution of options that skews toward minority (versus majority) consumers to be more inclusive and moral, which leads to more favorable attitudes toward the brand. In addition, consumers perceive product lines with balanced options to be as inclusive and moral as those with minority-skewed options. This research provides practitioners with valuable insights on how to increase favorable consumer perceptions of their brands’ DEI strategies.This paper contributes to the emerging literature on brand inclusivity in the marketplace. Specifically, it sheds light on why brands have been criticized for launching product lines that, ostensibly, include many options but may not go far enough to address marketplace inequalities that disadvantage underrepresented consumers.
Brands are increasingly committing to improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within their marketing practices. One way that brands can show their commitment to DEI is by offering inclusive product lines. This paper aims to examine the strategic implications of offering inclusive product lines by investigating consumer perceptions of product lines with more (versus fewer) options as well as product lines that cater primarily to minority (versus majority) consumers. This research uses three online experiments and one secondary data set to test the hypotheses across two consumption contexts (makeup and clothing). Consumers perceive product lines with more options and a distribution of options that skews toward minority (versus majority) consumers to be more inclusive and moral, which leads to more favorable attitudes toward the brand. In addition, consumers perceive product lines with balanced options to be as inclusive and moral as those with minority-skewed options. This research provides practitioners with valuable insights on how to increase favorable consumer perceptions of their brands’ DEI strategies.This paper contributes to the emerging literature on brand inclusivity in the marketplace. Specifically, it sheds light on why brands have been criticized for launching product lines that, ostensibly, include many options but may not go far enough to address marketplace inequalities that disadvantage underrepresented consumers.
When Social Media Gets Political: How Message–Platform Match Affects Consumer Responses to Brand Activism Advertising
Social media has sparked a surge in online activism and sociopolitical movements. Numerous companies have also launched brand activism advertising campaigns to voice their stances on sociopolitical causes. However, it remains unclear how and why consumer reactions to brand activism ads vary across different social media platforms. To bridge this gap, we introduced a novel characteristic of social media—level of politicization—and examined how message–platform congruence in terms of level of politicization affects consumer responses to brand activism ads. In Study 1, we found that on a less politicized platform, a less politicized message (vs. a more politicized message) reduced ad intrusiveness, which in turn positively affected consumers’ ad attitudes and purchase intentions toward the brand. On a more politicized platform, consumers exhibited equivalent levels of responses regardless of the message type. In Study 2, we further identified consumers’ level of issue support as a boundary condition of the message–platform congruence effect, such that the congruence effect was larger when issue support was low.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2024.2347271
Authors: Xuan Zhou, Chen Lou, Xun (Irene) Huang
ABSTRACT
Social media has sparked a surge in online activism and sociopolitical movements. Numerous companies have also launched brand activism advertising campaigns to voice their stances on sociopolitical causes. However, it remains unclear how and why consumer reactions to brand activism ads vary across different social media platforms. To bridge this gap, we introduced a novel characteristic of social media—level of politicization—and examined how message–platform congruence in terms of level of politicization affects consumer responses to brand activism ads. In Study 1, we found that on a less politicized platform, a less politicized message (vs. a more politicized message) reduced ad intrusiveness, which in turn positively affected consumers’ ad attitudes and purchase intentions toward the brand. On a more politicized platform, consumers exhibited equivalent levels of responses regardless of the message type. In Study 2, we further identified consumers’ level of issue support as a boundary condition of the message–platform congruence effect, such that the congruence effect was larger when issue support was low.